holding onto fire
by juliet agn
Summary: She said she cared for him, that she just wanted him to be safe. He told her she was lying.


**Sasuke and Ino. Oh dear. Gotta love them. And because kids are growing up too fast nowadays, me included.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

x.x.x.x.x

**when they were five**

It was Ino's first day of kindergarten, and truth to be told, she was scared. She didn't know anybody and at recess, she stood at the edge of the playground, wanting to join in with the other playing kids but not doing so because she didn't know them all that well. Then she spotted a dark haired boy sitting on a swing and just staring at the ground. Ino wondered why he was acting sad, when he was at a fun playground. She walked over to him, determined to make him cheer up, her shyness disappearing- who cares if she didn't know him? She stopped right in front of his swing and he looked up at her, half questionably, half unwelcoming. She noticed he had dark, dark eyes, so different from her blue ones. "Why are you sad?" she blurted out, almost nervously.

He stared back at her unflinchingly and said in a blank tone, "Because you're bothering me."

**when they were six**

Ino's pride still hadn't healed from that incident a year ago, and it smarted when she saw that same Sasuke Uchiha sitting in her first grade classroom on the first day of school. She flounced right up to him with a little glare in place. "Hey!" she said loudly into his ear. She startled him, for his head snapped up and she found herself looking into those dark eyes once more. A little glare of his own settled onto his features. He didn't respond, instead staring at Ino with something like contempt.

Ino didn't yet know of the word contempt, but she didn't really like that look in Sasuke's eyes. "Do you remember me?" Ino asked somewhat obnoxiously, flopping into the seat next to Sasuke.

Now he looked appalled at her bold actions. "You were in my class last year," Sasuke said, still using that blank tone from the earlier 'incident'.

"Yes I was!" Ino exclaimed. "And you so totally ignored me!"

(Ino didn't know if 'so totally ignored me' made any sense, but that was what the big girls on the TV said, so it must be super cool!)

Sasuke didn't seem like he was disagreeing with her.

"Mommy said that you should try to understand where rude people are coming from to know why they say rude things," Ino said, proud that she had remembered that word for word. "So where do you live?"

Sasuke, for some reason, didn't see the sense of Ino's question, but he responded with, "I live in the big white house near the other big white house."

Ino nodded sagely, because she knew exactly where the said big white house next to another big white house was. (She knew where several were, actually.) "I understand you perfectly now," she announced, though something in the back of her mind told her she didn't.

"Where do you live?" Sasuke asked her.

Even after that second blow to her pride, Ino chose Sasuke as her partner later that day.

Sasuke didn't choose her, but he didn't really have a choice.

**when he was seven and she was six**

Ino was throwing a big birthday party for her 'bestest friend in the whole wide universe' she said and she was inviting all of her and Sasuke's friends- Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, and so many more people! It was going to be the bestest party for the bestest friend!

Sasuke complained he didn't want a party, and he was sure that he didn't have that many friends, but Ino and Mrs. Sasuke's Mommy wouldn't have it. They threw the bestest party _ever_ and Sasuke so totally loved it even though he pretended to be bored. Ino got him a super cool so totally not girly friendship bracelet that matched the one Sasuke wore, and he slipped it on and never took it off the entire night. And Ino really did feel like she had the bestest friend in the whole wide universe.

**when they were ten**

They were spilled over Ino's couch, doing homework but really just chatting about this and that. Sasuke was never this chatty in school, Ino realized, and it seemed he was only talkative around her. Sasuke brushed back his spiky hair, bracelet sliding up and down his arm as he stared at a math problem. "Mom and Dad are fighting again," he finally told Ino after she badgered him about what she was calling 'his so totally moody girl act'. "It's making me scared."

Sasuke rarely opened up, even to Ino. She nodded sympathetically, not really knowing what to say. Her parents never fought with each other. For Sasuke to be telling her this, he had to be really upset.

"I'm sure they'll work out whatever's wrong," she told him. "Everything gets better, you know."

Sasuke offered her the slightest smile.

. . . _But first everything has to get worse_ . . .

**when they were thirteen**

"Something's bothering you."

"Something's bothering _you_," Ino said, crossing her arms and leveling a slight glare at her best friend. He leaned back on the park bench and gazed at her coolly. Ino was struck with how yummy he looked right now . . . Sheesh, she was paying too much attention to that whore, Karin. She so totally did _not _have a crush on her best friend. "And you're going to tell me what's wrong." she finished, plopping down on the park bench beside him.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, kicking Ino lightly with one of his converse covered feet. "Only if you do, too."

Ino nodded willingly. "Pinky promise." She held out her pinky.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Ino, only little kids do that."

"You know, some people still think we're little kids."

"But we're not." Sasuke exhaled, his breath turning into fog in the cool fall evening. "I wish people would stop treating us like we are." He stared off moodily into the dying light.

Ino scooted closer to him, concern causing a slight frown to appear on her face. "What's the matter?" she asked him. "You didn't come here just to complain about being treated like a little kid."

Sasuke glanced at her, hair obscuring his eyes. "Mother and Father are getting a divorce," he said after a while.

Ino blinked at him, not comprehending for a second. Sasuke's parents were getting a divorce? The heads of the Uchiha household, whose sons were both geniuses in their own rights? Fugaku and Mikoto, who both were always seen holding hands in public?

Sasuke had been telling her for a while about the fights Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha had been having, but Ino had always expected that they would resolve their differences and move on. She was shocked and instantly filled with a deep sympathy for Sasuke, who had to be hurting so much right now. "I'm so sorry," was the only thing she could think of to say, and when Sasuke looked away from her, biting her lip, Ino lurched forward and threw her arms around him. Sasuke froze, but then relaxed into her arms, resting his head on top of hers for a few moments. He pulled away all too soon for Ino, his face a mask in the fading sunlight filling the park. "Tell me what's bothering you," he said, voice a monotone.

Ino blinked; she had completely forgotten about the drama that had unfolded at school today. It seemed silly and trivial compared with Sasuke's woes. "Oh, it's really stupid," she said, absently running a hand through her ponytail.

"Tell me," Sasuke insisted, and Ino realized that he wanted a distraction from the pain and turmoil inside him. So she complied. "Sakura and Naruto broke up today over the stupidest thing," she said, remembering how frustrated she had been. "It's all so lame because both of them still really like each other but they think they can't be together for some weird reason."

Sasuke nodded slowly, focusing on Ino's voice and her words. "Both of them are stupid people," he said, more teasing than contemptuous.

Ino nodded energetically. "I know!" she exclaimed, flailing her arms around. "They might make good grades in school but they're both so love-retarded."

Sasuke snorted. "I wouldn't say Naruto's grades were good."

Ino laughed a little. "Yeah, his mom so totally flipped when she saw his last report card, he said!"

"Wait," Sasuke pressed a finger to her lips cutting her off. He had a strangely nostalgic look on his face. "Did you just say 'so totally'?"

"Yeah," Ino said around the finger on her lips, confused.

"That reminds me of your first real conversation with me from first grade," he said. "And you still say that."

Ino lifted an eyebrow, pushing Sasuke's hand away gently. "Um, we might not be little kids, but I'm thinking we're still too young for trips down memory lane."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but a smile tugged at his lips, and they both grinned at each other.

. . . _has to get worse _. . .

**when they were fourteen**

Ino ran down Sasuke's street to his house, the much smaller one on Elm Street he had moved into with his dad after his parents' divorce almost a year ago. She was so totally late because she had stayed after school helping her science teacher clean up (because she was such a goody two shoes like that). Sasuke was probably wondering where the hell she was. She could feel her phone buzzing in her pocket as she ran, probably a message from Sasuke.

She turned onto his street, blonde hair flying. She ran over to the house with yellow shutters and knocked on the front door a few times, and then knocked again in case Sasuke hadn't heard her.

Ino waited a few more seconds impatiently, preparing to knock yet again. She and Sasuke hadn't hung out in _forever_ and they had, like, two classes together this year and she missed him. Ino was aware she was missing him in a more than she really should as just his friend, but she chose to ignore that. Everybody thought they were screwing, anyways.

The door flung open at the exact moment she was preparing to knock. Ino lowered her fist to stare at a quite disheveled Sasuke. A smell, something distinctively smoky, wafted out from the house. Ino couldn't take her eyes off her friend, whose hair was crazier than normal and whose eyes were red and whose lips were holding onto something that looked suspiciously like spinach rolled up in some paper.

It was shock, she deduced later, that made her think initially that Sasuke was smoking spinach.

"Hey, Ino," he said in a voice that sounded haggard. Ino stepped mutely inside his home and Sasuke let the front door slam shut behind her. Sasuke walked into the kitchen and Ino followed him. "You want something to eat?" Sasuke asked, looking into the fridge.

"Sasuke, are you high?" Ino burst out.

Sasuke straightened up and looked over at her, but Ino couldn't really tell if he was looking at her or past her. "I think so," he said, closing the refrigerator door. "I'm not really sure, though."

"Sasuke!" Ino was horrified. "You can't do that! You can't do drugs! What does Mr. Uchiha think?"

"Father doesn't care," Sasuke said, instantly defensive. "Why does it matter to you, anyways?"

Ino was speechless. "B- because!" she stuttered out. "You're my best friend and smoking can kill you! I can't let you do that!"

Sasuke eyes narrowed. "You can't control me," he growled out viciously.

All of Ino's bright images for the future, all of her fantasies of holding Sasuke's hand in the school hallways shattered. She burst into tears. "I can't- I can't stay with someone who does those things!" she sobbed out. "I don't wanna die too!" With that, she whipped around and ran out of Sasuke's smoky house, the front door slamming shut with a foreboding sense of finality. Ino ran back to her house, crying, leaving behind her best friend to his own nightmare.

. . . _worse _. . .

**when they were fifteen**

Valentine's Day wasn't one of Ino's favorite holidays, considering how she usually got valentines from people she really didn't like, which was always extremely awkward. It also was a painful reminder of He Who Shall Not Be Named, otherwise known as Sasuke Uchiha, the scarily smart stoner who she used to be close friends with and still had a lingering crush on.

It was awkward seeing Sasuke nowadays. Ino hadn't ever really wanted to give up their friendship, considering how massive her crush on Sasuke had been. Sasuke didn't seem to have wanted to either, but Ino so totally did not want to risk getting cancer from second hand smoke or something like that. She realized she sounded paranoid, but she just didn't want to be around someone who did that kind of stuff- the hottest guy alive and the object of her affections included.

In homeroom, Ino sorted through all the valentines she had gotten this year, surrounded by all of her friends, who kept on saying how they _never ever _would get as many valentines as her. Ino opened up a particularly elaborate one and sighed. "Chouji asks me out every year," she said to her friends after tossing the valentine in the trash. "You'd think he'd get the picture."

Sakura, who was currently with her off- and- on boyfriend, Naruto, rolled her eyes. "That boy is so hopelessly in love with you, I swear," she said.

Ino shook her head and picked up the next valentine, a simple card in the shape of a heart. "Lame," Tenten said immediately, but Ino opened it anyways.

_Roses are red;_

_Violets are blue; _

_Ino Yamanaka, I really like you!_

Ino gasped at the utter cuteness of it while her friends shrieked at how lame and cheesy it was. But Ino had another reason for gasping.

She'd recognize those chicken scratches _anywhere_.

**when they were sixteen**

"Ino, c'mon. You'll have fun."

Ino cast her boyfriend of over a year a withering glance. "Fun?" she said dubiously. "You said the last one would be fun, Sasuke, and I ended up throwing up on the ten thousand dollar couch."

Sasuke shrugged, swinging them back and forth on the tire swing. Around them, children played on the playground, enjoying the spring day without any inhibitions over their shoulders. Or boyfriends urging them to go to a party sure to be full of alcoholic drinks.

Ino had acquired a phobia of mind altering substances ever since The Incident We Don't Talk About two years ago. And she definitely did not want to go to a party where she would be pressured into drinking and doing something stupid again.

"The couch was ugly, Ino," Sasuke pressed, gazing at her with his intense dark eyes that he knew Ino loved. "It deserved to be puked on."

"Oh, Sasuke, I don't know if I want to go," she said anxiously. "My parents might suspect something and I so totally do not want to get caught sneaking out to a party."

"Stop making up shitty excuses, Ino," Sasuke said sharply. "Your parents don't know a fucking thing about where you go. They think you're some fucking goody two shoes." Some parents glared at him.

"I'd like to keep it that way, Sasuke!" Ino objected. "I really don't want to get caught-"

"Ino." Sasuke was leaning towards her, his face mere inches from her own and Ino was reminded of the last time Sasuke had been this close to her- they had ended up making out on her kitchen floor. "Ino," Sasuke said again. "I want you to come so I can spend time with you. I'm not going to drink too much and I'm not going to smoke. I just want to go out and have a good time with my girlfriend and my friends."

Ino stared into his absolutely gorgeous eyes and felt her resistance melting away. "Well, if you put it that way . . .

"_Fiiine_."

Later that night she was thinking about how she might not regret this decision after all. For even though the music was loud and the lights were blaring bright and the people were crowded close, she could Sasuke kissing her and his body pressing into hers and she began to feel that she really was having fun.

**when they were seventeen**

Sasuke's breath smelled extra smoky today and Ino did not like it one bit. She didn't want to throw a ft right in the middle of school, so she tossed a piece of gum at his head and told him she refused to kiss him until he smelled like spearmint. Sasuke just looked at her and lifted one scarily perfect eyebrow before popping the gum in his mouth. He spat it out approximately two minutes later. Ino knew. She was counting.

Their friends sensed that they were in a battle or sorts, but choosing to be tactful, they relied on joking and humor to diffuse the tension between Ino and Sasuke, with the exception of Naruto. ("You and Ino have some bad sex yesterday or what?")

Finally, when Sasuke was driving her home, it all exploded.

They weren't talking initially. Sasuke had one hand covering Ino's with his other one controlling the steering wheel, which was very typical of him, except for the fact that Sasuke's hand on top of hers felt less like a source of comfort and more like a dead tuna. Ino retracted her hand and the tension between them grew so thick she could have cut it up with a dull butter knife.

Sasuke glanced at her as they were stopped at a red light, a glance that was so full of anger and disappointment that Ino couldn't help bursting out with a fair bit of anger, too, "I just wish you wouldn't smoke!"

The light turned green and the car lurched forward, a product of Sasuke slamming on the gas when Ino said that. He threw her another glance, but this one was much angrier. "I can do whatever I want, Ino," he snapped. "You don't control me."

Ino could hardly believe her ears. Her next words spilled out of her mouth faster than vomit. "Sure, but keep in mind that I have to kiss that! And you know I'm worried about you! Smoking can kill you!"

"Not at this age," he shot back. "I'm going to stop when I get older anyways."

The last sentence seemed to Ino that it was completely childish and naïve, so totally unlike Sasuke. She ran a hand through her ridiculously long blonde hair in frustration. "You won't be able to stop!" she practically yelled at him. "You're addicted!"

Sasuke abruptly turned the car into an empty parking lot, tires screeching. He let go of the wheel to positively glare at Ino, eyes angry in a way she had never seen before. "Don't _talk _to me like that!" he hissed, but it seemed to her like he was shouting. "Don't _ever _talk to me about this again!"

But Ino at this point was so angry and frustrated that all of her stress and fury with the world came right out into Sasuke. "Is this because you're upset over your parents' divorce?" she asked rather viciously. "That was four years ago, Sasuke; you should get over it!"

As soon as the words left her mouth she realized how completely awful and nasty she sounded and she pressed a hand to her mouth, eyes going wide. Sasuke stared at her for a long, excruciating moment, his mouth slightly open as if he was in shock. Surprisingly, it crossed Ino's mind that he looked beautiful even when he was probably going to kill her.

"Get out! _Get out_! Get out of my car!"

Sasuke thumped on the steering wheel, his face contorted with rage as Ino's words finally sank in. "Sasuke," Ino said, feeling tears starting to form. "I'm sorry-"

"Get _out_!"

Sasuke lunged at her like he was going to grab her throat, but Ino, with a sob, opened the car door and jumped out into the parking lot. Sasuke slammed the door shut and sped away, leaving Ino in the dust.

She sank onto the pavement with another sob, pressing her face into her hands. And to think it had been started by the stupidest thing. Trying to be close to Sasuke was like holding onto fire; all you would do was get burned by the rage and temper. But it wasn't all Sasuke's fault; she was the idiot who decided to try and hold fire anyways.

Ino was thinking about that as she realized that it would probably be best for her to break up with Sasuke.

**when they were eighteen**

"Shit."

Ino like to think that she'd been having a nice day today. She'd just moved into her dorm at the University of Vermont in the lovely city of Burlington and was excited for the adventure known as college. She'd met her roommate, a cool chick named Temari who looked like she could be Ino's sister and was looking forward to hanging out with her. When her parents had left she and her mom had only cried once, a record compared to the week before she had left. She had moved in without any real problems and had explored the city and campus to find that everything was absolutely gorgeous. So she had so totally been having a good day until she found out that one Sasuke Uchiha was right across the hall from her, a Sasuke Uchiha who she had had a messy breakup with a year prior. Sexy, sexy pot smoking Sasuke Uchiha who she _still _had lingering affections for.

The curse word that usually denoted poop was the first thing to fly through her brain and out her mouth when they both walked out of their dorms at the same time to run straight into each other. Sasuke didn't look all to happy to see her either, especially since the opened bottle of Vitamin Water Ino had been holding had spilled all over his white shirt.

"Um, I'm sorry," Ino said awkwardly after they had been staring at each other for a while.

"I really don't think you are," Sasuke snapped, looking down at his shirt with irritation. He promptly turned and walked right back into his room and attempted to slam his door shut, but Ino quite literally stuck her foot in the door. It hurt like hell when the door slammed down on it, but Ino had bigger worries at the moment. "Wait!" she said, flinging the door open and jumping inside Sasuke's dorm room. It looked exactly like hers; two beds, dressers, desks. Sasuke glared at her. The door swung shut behind her, effectively leaving the two exes alone. Ino began to feel that she had acted on a very, very irrational impulse.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked her in a tone that was less than accommodating.

"I . . ." Ino didn't actually know what she was planning to say to him, now that she thought about it. "I- I think-"

Sasuke was glaring at her even harder now, and Ino was reminded that his temper was one of the reasons why she broke up with him. "I still like you," she blurted out, fearful of what he would do if she didn't say something soon. But she instantly regretted saying that once she saw the look on Sasuke's face.

"You still like me?" Sasuke said incredulously. "Do you think you could stand my drug usage?"

The words were intended to hurt and Ino winced. "Sasuke, I- I care about you alright? I just want you to be safe," she said anxiously, tugging on a lock of blonde hair. "I worry about you . . ."

If Sasuke had looked incredulous before, he was beyond that now. "You worry about me," he said flatly. "You want to keep me safe." He rolled his eyes. "What a fucking _lie_, Ino."

She looked at him, her eyes glassy, and walked out of the room.

**when they were nineteen**

The music from the party was so loud she couldn't even think. Covering her ears did nothing as Ino moved through the crowd, detesting every minute spent in this overcrowded house full of drunken under age kids. Didn't they know they were only hurting themselves by being here and drinking so much? Maybe they didn't even care . . .

Normally Ino would be spending the night with her alcohol-phobic friends, but a strange text message from Sasuke, who never spoke to her any more, prompted her to come to this party and search for him. He had sent her 'spilling my guts out i think i see fire!' which, first of all, was so totally not like him and, secondly, made her think that he was puking in a corner somewhere. She came across someone she sort of knew from her calculus class and yelled at him over the pounding music, "Have you seen Sasuke?"

He seemed surprised that Ino was asking after the Uchiha, but he said, "Last time I saw him he was heading for the bathroom." Ino nodded her thanks and took off for the bathroom- wherever it was.

She found it approximately five minutes later. The door was ajar and she could see a snippet of a person hunched over the toilet, a distinctively male and Sasuke-ish person.

He was puking his guts out into the toilet, sweat covering his forehead and making his hair stick to his face. "Oh, Sasuke," Ino moaned, bending down next to him and brushing his hair back from his face. "Why would you do this to yourself?"

Sasuke was muttering something that sounded like a drunken 'go away', but Ino wouldn't leave. She'd missed Sasuke so much over the past years. and it was a raw and festering hole in her heart that only being near him could heal. It was like the fire she was holding had spread up her arm to her chest and had burned right through her, leaving behind a shallow shell of what she used to be. She loved Sasuke, she realized now, and even his smoking and drinking couldn't stop her from loving him. She wanted to help him, she wanted to save him so badly but it looked like he was ruining himself beyond repair. So she hugged him to herself, even though he had just thrown up in the toilet and his body was burning up. "You're sick," she told him matter-of-factly, but she wanted to tell him so much more.

Sasuke muttered something incoherent and delirious, and it seemed to Ino that he would pass out in her arms right then and there. She hugged him closer to herself. She didn't know why he was doing this to himself; hurting himself unnecessarily. Was this some form of self brought punishment? Maybe he was too addicted to the wild life of partying and drinking and screwing and just couldn't stop. Ino felt fear run through her, a fear for Sasuke and his deteriorating life. She let out something close to a strangled sob as she buried her face in his sweaty hair. Past the music and the yelling, she heard one word, one word from him that was full of weariness and depression.

"Why?"

Why? Why what? Why was she trying to hold onto him, the human symbol of destructive fire when he was only hurting her and himself? Didn't he know by now? Despite the fact that the both of them were self abusive idiots, he had to know.

Her voice came out muffled and soft, but she knew he still heard her. The music was loud and her face was still in his dirty, familiar hair, but Sasuke Uchiha heard her, because Sasuke Uchiha wanted to hear her so bad. And Ino really thought she might cry as she spoke, because her punctured heart was snapping into little tiny pieces and falling through her feet where she would accidentally trample on it as she walked past. Maybe Sasuke would find it one day, look at its trampled pieces and say in that weary voice of his, "_Damn_."

". . . I love you . . ."

**when they were twenty two**

Graduation day hadn't been anything particularly special for Ino, even though she was graduating from the University of Vermont and preparing to enter the real world. she felt sad as she threw her stuff into her car and she knew why. It wasn't because it was raining, though that certainly played a part in it; no, it wasn't because she would be leaving the beautiful city of Burlington. It was absolutely pathetic, but Ino was distraught that she might never see Sasuke again.

Their relationship wasn't easy by any means; the sparse times they saw each other usually concluded in someone crying and it wasn't always her. Ino wasn't looking forward to another argument, but she wanted to see Sasuke desperately before she was gone, even if it was just going to set fire to her trampled pieces of heart.

She packed up her car as slowly as she could, keeping an eye out for him. The rain was drenching her through but she so totally could not bring herself to care at the moment. Eventually, everything was packed and there was no way she could linger any longer. Ino sighed heavily, feeling like she wanted to cry, as she made to open the car door.

"Ino!"

Her name was yelled out so ferociously and angrily that she whipped around with surprise etched on her face. It was _him _approaching; of course it was him! What had she been thinking? Sasuke Uchiha wouldn't let her leave without a dramatic scene. He ran up to her, slipping slightly on the wet concrete. His face was angry as he did so and Ino stood still and the rain grew thicker, soaking into her hair and clothes and his too . . .

"You _bitch_!"

Ino's eyes widened in shock as the words came out of Sasuke's mouth and she said hotly, "_Excuse me_?" Sasuke came to a stop in front of her, his eyes wild. He placed his hands on both her shoulders and said to her quite angrily, "What are you _doing_? _Why _are you trying to leave without me?"

Ino could barely comprehend what he was saying when he pulled her to him and roughly kissed her. It was so shocking and painful and passionate and desperate and all of those things at the same time because he _needed _her and she _needed_ him and neither of them functioned well with the other but they couldn't stand to be apart. Their lips broke away and Ino gasped because kissing Sasuke Uchiha was like kissing _fire_ but it was so damn good! She flung her arms around him and held him tightly as he hugged her right back in the poring rain and repeated over and over, "I love you I love you I love you I love you-"

"I love you, too," she cried, her tears mixing with the rain on her face and soaking into his shirt. And she really did cry, the floodgates bursted open, and she was thankful that it was raining because Sasuke would ask her why she was crying and she didn't know why because she was so blissfully _happy_. But she knew, deep down inside her that they would never work. They would never agree on anything and she was too scared of his drug abuse and he was too addicted to stop and too easy to anger and again it was like holding onto the fire again, but this time her entire arm would be burned off, then her entire body would follow and she and Sasuke would kiss each other as they burned in each other's arms.

But when Sasuke said he wanted to marry her, because he never wanted to be away from her, she said yes anyways.

**when she was forty**

Everything was silent at six thirty in the morning in the sleepy town of Konoha. Even the birds seemed to be still in their nests as Ino walked down the sidewalk to a place she found particularly calming when work was getting stressful. She enjoyed walking down here when early in the morning because absolutely nobody was out and she wouldn't get weird looks from passerby when she talked to him. Ino turned off the sidewalk into Konoha Graveyard, feet barely making a sound on the cobblestone path. Many people found graveyards morbid and disturbing, but Ino liked the peace that came with them. When she was in one she felt like she was walking among so many stories of so many people who were merely in a peaceful slumber. Ino didn't worry about death much at her age; sometimes she thought that she would be happy when she died, because then they would be reunited again.

Ino stopped in front of a grave that looked newer than the rest and bent down, sitting in the grass cross-legged without a thought to her sweatpants. A small nostalgic smile touched her face as she stroked the lettering on the grave.

SASUKE UCHIHA

1986- 2011

HE STILL LIVES ON IN OUR HEARTS

"Yesterday at work was so drama filled, Sasuke," Ino said to the headstone. "You should've seen it. Kiba got so mad at Shino that he quite literally picked up a desk and threw it at him. Can you believe it? Kiba's going to get fired, which is such a shame because he's so good at his job. But you already know that, don't you? I talk about Kiba a lot . . . But he's just my friend, Sasuke, so don't be jealous." Ino smiled for real, looking up to the sky and imagining Sasuke looking down on her, muttering about how he wanted to push Kiba out of a five story window. "There's only room in my burned out heart for you, Sasuke. Loving people is too much work, anyways." Suddenly, Ino leaned forward and kissed the headstone, eyes closing as she did so. She leaned back and sighed.

"Miss you, Sasuke . . ."

x.x.x.x.x

**Yes, kiddos, drugs are bad for you. Anyways, please leave a review and tell me how I did.**


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